The ISO has revised the quality management principles in 2015. Now there are only seven principles. Please click here for the new seven principles of quality management.

Preface:

Quality management is becoming increasingly important to the leadership and management of all organisations. It is necessary to identify Quality Management as a distinct discipline of management and lay down universally understood and accepted rules for this discipline.

The ISO technical committee working on the ISO9000 standards had published a document detailing the quality management principles and application guidelines. (This article is based on the said document). The latest revision (version 2008) of ISO9000 standards are based on these principles.

"A quality management principle is a comprehensive and fundamental rule / belief, for leading and operating an organisation, aimed at continually improving performance over the long term by focusing on customers while addressing the needs of all other stake holders".

Principle 2 - Leadership : "Leaders establish unity of purpose
and direction of the organisation. They should create and maintain the internal environment in which people can become fully involved in achieving the organisation's objectives."

Steps in application of this principle are ...

Be proactive and lead by example.

Understand and respond to changes in the external environment.

Consider the needs of all stake holders including customers, owners, people, suppliers, local communities and society at large.

Establish a clear vision of the organisation's future.

Establish shared values and ethical role models at all levels of the organisation.

Build trust and eliminate fear.

Provide people with the required resources and freedom to act with responsibility and accountability.

Principle 5 - System
Approach to Management : "Identifying,
understanding and managing a system of interrelated processes for a given objective improves the organisation's effectiveness and efficiency."

Steps in application of this principle are ...

Define the system by identifying or developing the processes that affect a given objective.

Structure the system to achieve the objective in the most efficient way.

Understand the interdependencies among the processes of the system.

Continually improve the system through measurement
and evaluation, and

Use periodic assessments against established criteria of excellence to identify areas for potential improvement.

Continually improve the efficiency and effectiveness of all processes.

Promote prevention based activities.

Provide every member of the organisation with appropriate education and training, on the methods and tools of continual improvement such as the Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle , problem solving , process re-engineering, and process innovation.